Review: Smallville Season 7 Premiere

Published 8 years ago
by
Vic Holtreman
, Updated February 9th, 2012 at 5:08 pm,

So it’s finally here: The Smallville season 7 premiere. They certainly left a lot of cliffhangers in the season 6 finale, and in this episode we get some, but not all the answers.

The episode is called Bizarro, for good reason. Right off the bat, the episode opens with a bang with big, epic special effects scenes including the dam from the previous episode bursting and a subsequent flood, which Clark in an heretofore unseen level of heat vision power, turns into steam with a wide angle burst of his vision. Very cool and a preview of things to come regarding his willingness to finally unleash his powers this season, I’ll bet.

The one lame point in this opening series of scenes was when they showed a father trying to get his son out of the way of the oncoming flood tripping and hitting his head on a rock like some young girl on the run from the villain in a horror movie. But hey, that was minor IMHO.

Moving on… and be warned, full-on spoilers ahead.

Before Clark did his raging river steam cooking thing, he knocked the heck out of his doppelganger Bizarro, sending him flying and inadvertantly impaling him on a electrical powerline support structure. When a guy drives up in a truck to see if he needs help, Bizarro demonstrates how truly slimey he is by burning the fellow alive via his heat vision. Pretty gruesome.

Oh, Lex was trapped underwater in the back of a police car when the flood demolished the bridge, sending the car to the bottom of the river. He is rescued by what looks to be an angel, but if we’ve spent any time online reading about this season we already know it will turn out to be Kara, Clark’s cousin.

Lois managed to drag an apparently dead Chloe out of danger with a little help from Clark. At the hospital Chloe is pronounced dead, only to wake up in a drawer in the morgue. Maybe someone can explain this scene to me, because from the reply of the nurse/doctor to his question regarding how Chloe was doing, he could only assume she was dead… so why he decides to fine tune his super-hearing to try to find her (and they’ve finally stopped using that CGI down-the-ear-canal effect) is beyond me. If he thought she was dead, why would he listen for her? Ok, he suspected something “meteor-freak-ish” happened to bring Lois back to life, but I think it’s quite a leap to assume she’s alive after the doctor has pronounced her dead.

Lionel is washed downriver from the dam and a mysterious guy that’s dressed like a cowboy rescues him, still unconscious. I’m not completely sure, but I’m figuring it was Martian Manhunter.

Interestingly and in order to draw out the “is he completely evil yet or not” Lex Luthor storyline, he believes that he was rescued by an angel from the bottom of the river and is now seeking redemption, going so far as to turn himself in for the murder of Lana. While in jail, his lawyer is killed by Bizarro, who shows up wanting access to Lex’s storehouse of kryptonite. As seen in the finale last season, kryptonite strengthens him, so that’s why he’s tracked down Lex (since that’s the guy you go to for all your meteor rock needs). We learn that not only does Mr. Crackle Face (Bizarro) possess Clark’s genetics, but he also has all of his memories and thoughts, prompting him to make a pass at Lois (finally).

Martian Manhunter has a talk with Clark, trying to boost his confidence before he goes after Bizarro. Clark doesn’t know how he can defeat someone who doesn’t have his own weakness, and in a cool little scene, he (and the audience) finally learn about our yellow sun being his source of strength. Since Bizarro is the opposite of Clark, sunlight is what can destroy him.

Clark gets to Bizarro too late, after he’s already absorbed all the kryptonite radiation (which conveniently seems to drain the meteor rocks completely, happy news for Clark). Despite knowing he’s outmatched Clark charges Bizarro, who puts him down handily. After having the wind knocked out of him, it dawns on Clark (a little late, if you ask me) that “oh yeah, I need to get him into the sunlight!!” and by goading Bizarro manages to do that. Clark delivers the uppercut from Krypton which sends Bizarro sailing into the upper atmosphere where he starts to disintegrate… BUT, at the last moment a blurry figure flies into the scene to whisk him away, presumably to safety? It happens so fast you can’t tell who it is, but again I have to assume that it was Martian Manhunter. Why he would save Bizarro, I don’t know.

Clark tells Chloe how he feels about seeing what would happen if his dark side was unleashed and again, it seems like this is the season where he’s finally going to “own” his superhero status.

Almost at the end we cut to Shanghai, China, which is of course where Lana is hiding out. She’s in a traditional dress and a short blond wig, all alone. She stares out the window at the moon with that damned weepy expression that I would love to see wiped off her face once and for all.

And finally we see Kara, putting on what look like silver Wonder Woman bracelets and leaving a silvery costume behind that looks like it’s from a 1950′s TV show. She flies off and past the camera.

I thought the opening of the episode was extremely cool and very intense, and although I thought it was a good episode, I felt a bit cheated that almost everything was tied up in just 45 minutes worth of show. I think it would have made for a better resolution if they’d made the opener a two parter… I don’t know. As it turns out, they lied last season because none of the characters are dead. Ok, technically Chloe died, but she came back. And I’m really eagerly awaiting the explanation of why Clark’s cousin, who supposedly was sent to Earth in suspended animation and just woke up – can fly. And not baby first steps wobbly flight, mind you – we’re talking aerobatic manuevers, baby.

Overall, I really enjoyed it and I’ll have to give it another viewing. I’m just glad it’s back.

23 Comments

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Jim Carey 7 years ago

Yeah, pay attention to the yellow sun converstion with Martian Manhunter. He (MM) hints at a plan that can use the yellow sun against Bizarro–but he (MM) says Clark has to do the heavy lifting.

Later on, Clark tells Chloe that Bizarro is on the sun-side of Mars. So YES it was Martian Manhunter, NO he wasn’t rescuing Bizarro.

I do not understand either why Clark decides to fine tune his super-hearing to try to find Chloe?, or this just kind ot happened becasue he was too distressed about chloe’s death?… really i do not understand, he looked very aggrieved inside of that blurry light and i first thought that this super-hearing thing was an involuntary reaction but i am not really sure.

I think that in the next epissode clarc should learne how to fly. Then they should make another justice legue (2 part) story and clarc would have the black superman costume with the shield and his codename should be superman. If they do that then smallville is complete.

I’ll have to go back and re-watch the episode, I missed that Mars comment. If Chloe said it, how the heck would she know? Unless she was just speaking figuratively.

And on the MM/Jor El connection, there are some things on this show that I just let go because if I think about them too hard they don’t make sense. Remember that whole Indian cave/Egyptian artifact thing? They seem to have started that plot line just to drop it completely without ever really explaining it.

Of course we still have two seasons to go and Kara here now, so maybe we’ll get some answers.

OK, you missed a couple subtle things man. When Clark heard used his hearing to find Chloe, it was because it was emotionally overwhelmed…sensory overload man, he wasnt’ controling it.

And Martian Manhunter is no match for Bazarro, but he can fly. So they set him up to be upercut into the sunlight and Martian Manhunter grabed him to take him to the “Sunny Side of Mars” according to Chloe in the last 10 minutes of the episode.

Good episode. And Kara probably landed in the concrete of the damn, which is why she is not alive and well. And she was old enough to be educated about her “yellow sun” powers before she left for earth…she was 16.

I’m still waiting to see how that whole thing plays out. There must have been a body at the morgue since there was a death certificate for Lana, so yeah… whose body IS it? And how the hell did she fake the dental records, which is the oldest way in the book for identifying a burn victim.

Well I loved every second of the first episode of Season 7!! It was definently full of twised action! But thats what I love most about this show!! Thats why I have ALL THE SEASONS ON DVD!! This is the only show that I have ever been into this deep!! I never really liked watching shows much less getting all the seasons on DVD! But got a whole season to enjoy and I hear that they are making an 8th season! SWEET!! Can’t wait!! I wish that they would never stop!! But if they didnt the I would guess Tom mould get sick of being Clark Kent!! But what do I know he might love it every second! He has stuck with it this long!! I know that the rest of the season will be terrific as Bizzaro!! Peace ALL! Jessica

It does seem like they’re going to pull out all the stops this season, and I think that’s great. My concern though is that they may go one season too many by adding one after this, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

BTW, I’m really hoping that the quashed rumors concerning Welling NOT playing Superman in the upcoming Justice League movie get reversed. I’d love to see him as a full-on Superman.

Lots of very interesting comments! Just as a possible plot backstory regarding the bracelet Kara puts on at the end of the episode: In the comic books, Kara is trained in the ways of combat and stuff by the Amazons. Could we maybe see a Wonder Woman reference in the future or is this just a “fashion statement” by the Girl from Krypton?

Yeah i did hear that Tom Welling was going to play superman in the justice league movie I hope that he does not back out I would be really dissappointed and I probably wont watch it then!! I too would love to see him be superman!! Not just Clark Kent!! That would be fantastic if he does do through with that movie!! :)See ya later!! Jessica

Every week I’m re-impressed by the opening credit sequence for Smallville. The timing of the beginning of the Remy Zero theme song (and the song itself), the way the title letters come out and retract, the “unfracturing” of the cast names, the split second scenes they chose from six and a half seasons, the cast poses…down to the end of the song–”Come on!” I tape it but never get tired and skip past the opening.

as for Jor-El and MM knowing each other? maybe that’s possible because Jor-El was on Earth when he was young, he even had a girl on Earth he was in love with I think, but left Earth because he believed in his destiny on Krypton
also, some spoilers for you guys …
Kara enters a beauty pageant in smallville, ends up winning and going to jail, and then Lana returns to Smallville after Lex finds her and she stays with Clark …
Also, reason why Clark hasn’t learned to fly yet, I do believe he’s afraid of heights and I’d assume that’s definetely it

All right, here’s what I think: Clark just don’t want to fly. He doesnot know the limit of his powers. Let’s see he got the hang of his super strength, then super speed came, then invulnerability then X ray eyes and just when he got the hang of that: Heat vision after that super hearing. He is afraid that if he masters flying,some new power will emerge and make him less human.
As for Clark meeting Bizzarro before he becomes Superman isn’t new its been done in the 60′s in an issue of Superboy. Of course it was General Zod’s clones (Bizzaro) not Clark’s. He also went into the Phantom Zone (in 60′s)be fore leaving Smallville. (Check out Tales of Superman).
As for Jor_El he is probably some kind of military
personnel. How else would he be hopping galaxies and trapping bad guys like General Zod and Brainiac?

This was definitely a very good episode, because in the season finally of the 6th season it seemed as if all the strong were characters were gone and which seemed to suck out the charm of smallville, you know what i mean like hot and sexy lana gone and then chloe the miss know at all reporter. Watching this episode was certainly a big relief…… lol these people never seem to die, Tollin and Robins must have been really punctual in case of paychecks !!!